What is life like living in the Middle East? Do you feel safe? Are the adjustments big? I have had a lot of these and similar questions from people as we have talked about what life is like for me here. It if funny how after even just three months, things become “normal” and a pattern. Yes, things are different in some big ways, you don’t normally see goat heads as you walk down a market street in the States and I still wonder at specific cross-gender interactions. I do feel safe and there are a lot of comforts that allow me to escape to a “home-like” place if I feel the need. I could easily just get in a “western” bubble. I am glad I teach at an Arab school and live in an Indian community.
As anticipated, I have become really busy between teaching all new subjects, taking Arabic, playing piano, trying to stay involved in community. I am not sure what I feel about that. I had a great conversation with a friend this morning about how easy it can be to just be anywhere and get so busy that you are just running circles in that place. It doesn’t matter where, I could do that here, in the States, in Switzerland . I have been thinking about what it means to live intentionally and again must learn the skill of saying “no.”
Some interesting or funny cultural observations and interactions…
So at Starbucks and Caribou, they have the Christmas decorations up as I am sure they do in the States which is ironic seeing as they don’t celebrate Christmas. Well, I asked the other day about pumpkin spice lattes seeing as it is the season AND Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to eat at. “We don’t have those or other holiday flavors here Miss” Okay….then why are there adds all over for the holiday season? Of course, I should not ask such questions here…just accept that some things don’t make sense like that. Just like traffic lights that are not synchronized.
I have been practicing my Arabic letters and slowly growing vocabulary with my students and they usually have AT LEAST one good laugh at me as I attempt to pronounce several sounds that Westerners never make in English. Sounds we really don’t even know how to make in our throats or mouths. As much as I usually don’t love the idea of my students laughing at me because I am probably doing something stupid (though I have come to accept that in my career), I have to laugh with them and enjoy having them help me. They were very proud of me the other day because I successfully wrote my first word on my own by sounding it out. I used vowels properly and all! Baby steps….If I have to sound funny, however, it is worth the little moments that I treasure with my students in sharing culture and misunderstanding and us learning from each other.
Some of my favorite memories have been at recess duty, sitting with students, talking about life, practicing language, trying to figure out what to do for a career, where to go to university OR (very importantly) if the new shirt I purchased is peach or pink (the vote was unanimously pink, much to my chagrin). I love going to the games or introducing them to the flavor of pumpkin that we enjoy at Thanksgiving in the States through the medium of pumpkin muffins (they haven’t had that here) and then trying the homemade goods they bring me to test out. I love my students!
FUN experience: running a marathon relay where I was the only American (one of two girls on a team of 16) in a race that had teams from all over the world: Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Saudi, other places….it was one of the coolest global experiences I have had, seeing the flags from around the world as teams came in. It was just one example of the beauty of the diversity here!
Well….that was long, and I apparently need to blog many times to make up for the lack of them the last month so I will post more soon! I would like to note that I have decided to take my food section of my blog to a new level…
Food:
Things I miss:
- Fall foods from the States
- Starbucks Pumpkin Spice lattes
- Reasonably priced sweet potatoes
- Lettuce and good baby spinach and good salads
- Cuban food
- Chipotle/Moes
Things I won’t venture with again:
- Ice cream from the street vendor (you know, the ice cream man that you begged mom to let you get a Chaco Taco from?). I know, this may come as a shock to some of you as you understand my passion for ice cream. HOWEVER, ice cream from the vendors here is comparable to….chalk. I will use chalk for writing on my chalkboard.
- Turkish Musakka – I don’t like mushy vegetables
- Anything with cardamom – not a favorite spice of mine
- Chicken tika sandwich
Top Fifteen Update:
1. Halloumi and avocado sandwich
2. Calve Peanut Butter
3. Hummus and Turkish bread, carrots, celery, anything
4. Indian food from Sangitas….wow
5. Halloumi cheese sautéed in lemon juice
6. Tzatziki dip
7. Turkish food in general…ESPECIALLY the bread (I am utterly Scandinavian at heart)
8. Frozen peach tea drink
9. Samosas
10. Fresh fruit juices – they just don’t come made fresh on the spot in the States like this
11. New Zealand cheddar on crackers with Swiss strawberry preserves (just goes to show that most good things do come from Switzerland, a lot of my favorite non-Arab food comes from the Swiss)
12. Moussy raspberry beverage
13. Somersby
14. Arab lamb and rice dish (that you eat with our hands while sitting on the floor
15. Calve Peanut Butter
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Ramblings of a White Girl
You can tell some time has gone by in a foreign country when you are sitting drinking coffee and a Caucasian person walks by and you think, “WOAH! It’s a white person!” I reflected on that for a second and thought about how funny that sounded coming from a tall blonde haired, blue eyed girl who sticks out like a sore thumb.
Bahrain is back in full swing now that Ramadan is over. The implications of that are as a whole, amusing, exciting and annoyingly frustrating. We’ll start with the frustration – TRAFFIC. My word, I have never seen such bad traffic. Yes, the driving is horrendous as well but the traffic is just crazy here! It can take an hour to get what should take 10-15 minutes…every day! I actually had my first moment a couple of days ago that would be what I would call the closest thing to culture shock feelings that I have had.
To give a brief background from me and how I do away from home: I was the kid who went to summer camp or on a trip away from home and cried the last day or two, not because I missed home and my dog but because I had to leave and go home. I have always loved travel – was fascinated with airports and LOVED going to pick up and drop off my dad when he traveled. I have dreamed of being abroad for a long time since middle school and want to get my masters in cultural anthropology and be multi-lingual. SO I was not really anticipating culture shock and really have 95% of the time loved it here and enjoyed my experiences greatly.
The other day though….it was a bit of a long week last week going back to school and trying to get caught up on all of the grading…oh yeah, grading a lot of plagiarized essays….I had lacked sleep and was ready for the weekend. I had a hair appointment right after school and had to go a little way to get there – ideally and in a normal setting, this should have taken maybe 20 minutes to get to the location. Reality: 45. Not SO bad. Well, then I came home and because of construction, the path to get home changed and I did not know this. SO I spend and hour and a half coming home and sitting in traffic when it should have taken me maybe 45 minutes. Too bad traffic lights aren’t synced so that you can have a normal traffic flow to life. Frustrated? Yes. THEN to top it off, I went to visit some friends later in the evening. Missed the exit as I had not gone that way before and so I try getting off at the next exit and turn around but OH…you cannot do that here often!!!! Sure you can to u-turns wherever on regular roads but not the highway. So I get lost yet again trying to navigate back and there is no logic to the roads, few road signs and names – people don’t really use them anyway.
What do to as my internal frustration radar is maxed out after a long day, being lost three times and wasting time in traffic (some of my least favorite things)? Call mom….so I did. And she let me rant about dumb roads that don’t connect to highways or even allow you to go around the block and dumb lights that don’t work together so you can actually go somewhere in a decent time, no road signs, dumb traffic and feeling like I live in a backwards place (obviously my perception is a little off at this point). Shed a couple tears that are rare for me, take some deep breaths, apologize later for the rant. Yes, my mom is the best. And that is my story of what I think is the closest I will come to feeling the culture shock or whatever it is one “feels” when frustrated abroad. As you can tell, patience in traffic is one of my greatest virtues….
The amusing – Hearing students interact with their Arabish…(the Middle East version of the world Spanglish) they will talk and fluidly weave English in and out of their Arabic conversations – even within one sentence.
Also amusing – the perspective of education from some parents and students at my school: “You need to be their friend and be easy to make them like you so that they like the class.” “Teacher, you gave us TWO homeworks today!!!” Life is hard. VERY hard.
The exciting: this would compromise the majority of my view of Bahrain in her “normal” state. I love seeing all of the people out and just watching them function in every day life, from the. Lots of things start up at this time, one being Arabic classes! I will be starting Arabic this week
I really like exploring the city and hopefully soon more of the country. Some of my hopeful future endeavors:
- Four-wheeling in the desert
- Camping in the desert
- Boating with the dolphins
- Boating in general – MAYBE wakeboarding
- Kitesurfing???
- Running a race!!!
One note about Ramadan: it is MUCH easier to stay on a budget for eating out during Ramadan. I ate out one time during that month, maybe twice. Since then…well, my top fifteen food list has greatly diversified :D
Top 15 Food Update:
1. Hummous and the bread they serve with it
2. Calve Peanut Butter
3. Moussy Drinks (raspberry is the best)
4. Turkish food
5. Halloumi Cheese
6. Weetabix
7. Mango-orange juice
8. Kofta
9. Shwarma
10. Curry anything
11. Chocolate milk here – cannot describe the level of amazing to you
12. Egyptian food……wow
13. Calve Peanut Butter
14. Samosas
15. Baklava-like pastries
Bahrain is back in full swing now that Ramadan is over. The implications of that are as a whole, amusing, exciting and annoyingly frustrating. We’ll start with the frustration – TRAFFIC. My word, I have never seen such bad traffic. Yes, the driving is horrendous as well but the traffic is just crazy here! It can take an hour to get what should take 10-15 minutes…every day! I actually had my first moment a couple of days ago that would be what I would call the closest thing to culture shock feelings that I have had.
To give a brief background from me and how I do away from home: I was the kid who went to summer camp or on a trip away from home and cried the last day or two, not because I missed home and my dog but because I had to leave and go home. I have always loved travel – was fascinated with airports and LOVED going to pick up and drop off my dad when he traveled. I have dreamed of being abroad for a long time since middle school and want to get my masters in cultural anthropology and be multi-lingual. SO I was not really anticipating culture shock and really have 95% of the time loved it here and enjoyed my experiences greatly.
The other day though….it was a bit of a long week last week going back to school and trying to get caught up on all of the grading…oh yeah, grading a lot of plagiarized essays….I had lacked sleep and was ready for the weekend. I had a hair appointment right after school and had to go a little way to get there – ideally and in a normal setting, this should have taken maybe 20 minutes to get to the location. Reality: 45. Not SO bad. Well, then I came home and because of construction, the path to get home changed and I did not know this. SO I spend and hour and a half coming home and sitting in traffic when it should have taken me maybe 45 minutes. Too bad traffic lights aren’t synced so that you can have a normal traffic flow to life. Frustrated? Yes. THEN to top it off, I went to visit some friends later in the evening. Missed the exit as I had not gone that way before and so I try getting off at the next exit and turn around but OH…you cannot do that here often!!!! Sure you can to u-turns wherever on regular roads but not the highway. So I get lost yet again trying to navigate back and there is no logic to the roads, few road signs and names – people don’t really use them anyway.
What do to as my internal frustration radar is maxed out after a long day, being lost three times and wasting time in traffic (some of my least favorite things)? Call mom….so I did. And she let me rant about dumb roads that don’t connect to highways or even allow you to go around the block and dumb lights that don’t work together so you can actually go somewhere in a decent time, no road signs, dumb traffic and feeling like I live in a backwards place (obviously my perception is a little off at this point). Shed a couple tears that are rare for me, take some deep breaths, apologize later for the rant. Yes, my mom is the best. And that is my story of what I think is the closest I will come to feeling the culture shock or whatever it is one “feels” when frustrated abroad. As you can tell, patience in traffic is one of my greatest virtues….
The amusing – Hearing students interact with their Arabish…(the Middle East version of the world Spanglish) they will talk and fluidly weave English in and out of their Arabic conversations – even within one sentence.
Also amusing – the perspective of education from some parents and students at my school: “You need to be their friend and be easy to make them like you so that they like the class.” “Teacher, you gave us TWO homeworks today!!!” Life is hard. VERY hard.
The exciting: this would compromise the majority of my view of Bahrain in her “normal” state. I love seeing all of the people out and just watching them function in every day life, from the. Lots of things start up at this time, one being Arabic classes! I will be starting Arabic this week
I really like exploring the city and hopefully soon more of the country. Some of my hopeful future endeavors:
- Four-wheeling in the desert
- Camping in the desert
- Boating with the dolphins
- Boating in general – MAYBE wakeboarding
- Kitesurfing???
- Running a race!!!
One note about Ramadan: it is MUCH easier to stay on a budget for eating out during Ramadan. I ate out one time during that month, maybe twice. Since then…well, my top fifteen food list has greatly diversified :D
Top 15 Food Update:
1. Hummous and the bread they serve with it
2. Calve Peanut Butter
3. Moussy Drinks (raspberry is the best)
4. Turkish food
5. Halloumi Cheese
6. Weetabix
7. Mango-orange juice
8. Kofta
9. Shwarma
10. Curry anything
11. Chocolate milk here – cannot describe the level of amazing to you
12. Egyptian food……wow
13. Calve Peanut Butter
14. Samosas
15. Baklava-like pastries
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Picking Up Speed…
So the biggest update since I last blogged (still wondering how “successful” of a blogger I am going to be)….school has started! We started school on the 6th of September and had two weeks of classes as of yesterday. The set up is quite different from the schedule I had in the States. Instead of being on a block schedule meeting ninety minutes every day for a semester, I have the students all year and we meet three times a week at varied times depending on the class and the grade.
A couple of random quotes stories:
When I was substituting for a class of eighth graders and was having them teach me Arabic:
“Miss (they call me Miss or Ms. Melissa), WE all know two languages, why should we have to teach you a second one.” I proceed to answer in German. Silence…”what was that Miss?” …”German…do you speak it?” …”No”…”Oh, okay then – you teach me Arabic and I will teach you German.” We had a blast after that. Minus a common German word being an Arabic swear word…oops! Guess that’s life.
From an eighth grader in that same class: “Miss do you know you look like a Russian supermodel…do you speak Russian?” I had no good comeback for that one, just to say no and ignore.
“Miss try my brownies….Miss PLEASE be in charge of Model UN….Miss you give us a lot of hard homework ”
Sounds like my kids from home. LOVE It
I am teaching two tenth grade world history classes from Imperialism – WWI, an eleventh grade history from WWI to current history, two senior economic classes, a college preparation for juniors and a college preparation for seniors. Classes during Ramadan are 30-35 minutes and after will be 40-45 minutes. THUS teaching life is quite different for me and I think that the schedule has been the biggest adjustment for me in the whole process. I did feel after two weeks, however, that I have a better feel for lessons look like in those time frames. We now have a week off for Eid holiday (celebration after Ramadan) which probably starts Sunday, depending on the moon. I have heard that watching the celebration is a lot of fun so I will be trying to do that as well as a lot of planning.
I have REALLY enjoyed getting back into teaching and ironically enough for those who know me well, I am having a great time with economics in spite of having determined in college that it would be the bane of my teaching existence if I had to ever teach it. Wonders will never cease and my time here has seemed to be full of things like that so I look forward to the continuing story.
The students are GREAT and meeting them has been among the favorite things that I have experienced here thus far. We had our first Iftar (daily breaking of the fast at sunset) celebration along with football (soccer) games Thursday evening and it was quite a fun event. It is relatively reminiscent of a Friday night school American football game. A lot of the moms or relatives made a plethora of amazing Arab and other dishes and after the call to prayer, we ate together (YUM!) and then I went with a couple of teachers to watch the various grades play each other in football. I had some students attempting to talk me into running/sponsoring Model UN….we’ll see. I think I might have to be careful or they will steal my heart and I would probably have to live at school for all I would be involved with .
Overall, I have really enjoyed myself and the things I am seeing and experiencing. I am told by my students that “Bahrain will be much less boring after Ramadan”….I do have to say I wasn’t bored yet but I am looking forward to seeing what life is like during the rest of the year as well.
So the biggest update since I last blogged (still wondering how “successful” of a blogger I am going to be)….school has started! We started school on the 6th of September and had two weeks of classes as of yesterday. The set up is quite different from the schedule I had in the States. Instead of being on a block schedule meeting ninety minutes every day for a semester, I have the students all year and we meet three times a week at varied times depending on the class and the grade.
A couple of random quotes stories:
When I was substituting for a class of eighth graders and was having them teach me Arabic:
“Miss (they call me Miss or Ms. Melissa), WE all know two languages, why should we have to teach you a second one.” I proceed to answer in German. Silence…”what was that Miss?” …”German…do you speak it?” …”No”…”Oh, okay then – you teach me Arabic and I will teach you German.” We had a blast after that. Minus a common German word being an Arabic swear word…oops! Guess that’s life.
From an eighth grader in that same class: “Miss do you know you look like a Russian supermodel…do you speak Russian?” I had no good comeback for that one, just to say no and ignore.
“Miss try my brownies….Miss PLEASE be in charge of Model UN….Miss you give us a lot of hard homework ”
Sounds like my kids from home. LOVE It
I am teaching two tenth grade world history classes from Imperialism – WWI, an eleventh grade history from WWI to current history, two senior economic classes, a college preparation for juniors and a college preparation for seniors. Classes during Ramadan are 30-35 minutes and after will be 40-45 minutes. THUS teaching life is quite different for me and I think that the schedule has been the biggest adjustment for me in the whole process. I did feel after two weeks, however, that I have a better feel for lessons look like in those time frames. We now have a week off for Eid holiday (celebration after Ramadan) which probably starts Sunday, depending on the moon. I have heard that watching the celebration is a lot of fun so I will be trying to do that as well as a lot of planning.
I have REALLY enjoyed getting back into teaching and ironically enough for those who know me well, I am having a great time with economics in spite of having determined in college that it would be the bane of my teaching existence if I had to ever teach it. Wonders will never cease and my time here has seemed to be full of things like that so I look forward to the continuing story.
The students are GREAT and meeting them has been among the favorite things that I have experienced here thus far. We had our first Iftar (daily breaking of the fast at sunset) celebration along with football (soccer) games Thursday evening and it was quite a fun event. It is relatively reminiscent of a Friday night school American football game. A lot of the moms or relatives made a plethora of amazing Arab and other dishes and after the call to prayer, we ate together (YUM!) and then I went with a couple of teachers to watch the various grades play each other in football. I had some students attempting to talk me into running/sponsoring Model UN….we’ll see. I think I might have to be careful or they will steal my heart and I would probably have to live at school for all I would be involved with .
Overall, I have really enjoyed myself and the things I am seeing and experiencing. I am told by my students that “Bahrain will be much less boring after Ramadan”….I do have to say I wasn’t bored yet but I am looking forward to seeing what life is like during the rest of the year as well.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Noises, Netherlands and Navigation
Well, yesterday marked two weeks for me here officially…it feels like a lot more time than that has passed though, probably because a lot has happened and there has been a lot of sensory intake going on. It is interesting because in some ways there is so much to take in – sights, tastes, sounds, smells, etc. that are really exciting and cool and yet it is hard to compute at times. For someone who likes to know what I am doing, it is a different world – though loud in many ways with things I am unfamiliar with, silent at the same time because of language barriers when I am out and no roommates when I am home.
These things are not bad but totally different and I am trying to feel my way through that. I want to take advantage of the gift of rest and silence because I tend to underrate them and avoid them so I think this is very purposeful in my life!
So to give you an idea of some of my on-goings as of late
- Got settled into my flat and really like it (pictures coming on FB whenever I get good internet access)
- Haven’t started school due to Swine flu precautions but will in two days.
- Am adjusting to the heat – I actually thought yesterday, “Hmmm, it feels cooler today!
- I have started playing piano again on a team and REALLY enjoy it – realized I miss playing music!
- Much to everyone’s surprise I am finding myself with a lot of possible opportunities to stay busy that I could commit to – teaching English, playing piano, helping with different groups.
- I have officially fallen to the vice of Settlers of Catan….not QUITE as viciously as peanut butter, ice cream or outdoor activities but I am wondering how I let myself miss out on this wonderful world….I am pretty sure I am hooked and am in for some good competition – or I maybe should say that THEY should watch out!
- Learning what it means to be quiet and enjoy time alone – I realized I don’t quite know what to do with myself when I have the time I have by myself.
- Have been discovering the city little bit by little bit – getting oriented a little through runs and riding around. Have a long way to go…
- Enjoying the gulf breeze and smell of fresh salt water!
- Trying to figure out how to work air-drying clothes…they just don’t come out the same as a dryer. Additionally, I dyed my first clothes another color yesterday! Apparently the water doesn’t get cold so washing a couple of things that were lighter with a black skirt that hadn’t been washed gave me baby blue shirts that had been white and gray capris that had been khaki….hmmm, going to have to work on that one!
Some goals of mine:
- Read more – have a list…
- Get back to doing art – I brought my charcoal pencils and the other day was at a teacher store and found acrylic paints and canvas!!!! :)
- Not get too busy
On a side note, it was suggested that I blog about food – things I have found and enjoy here so far…GREAT topic. I thought I would make a top 15 list for you…pictures coming
- Dutch Peanut Butter – made in the
- Halloumi cheese
- Hummus
- Mango-orange juice (mango mixed with personally fresh squeezed orange juice)
- Peanut Butter
- Eggplant (yes, I had not had it before – tried it on amazing homemade pizza)
- Crackers, Swiss jam and
- Peanut Butter
- Banana chips from
- Lamb
- All of the AMAZING fruit selections (it helps to be near tropical places)
- Peanut Butter!
- Dates
- Did I mention peanut butter?!?!
Seeing as it is Ramadan, I expect that this will expand greatly afterwards when there will be more open eating and sharing of food. I will revamp the list later again…though I am sure it will still have peanut butter on it at least twice.
Monday, August 24, 2009
There's a lot to learn in four days.....
Well right about now marks the four day mark for me in Bahrain. Here are just a few things that I've learned the past few days
- Eating dates in the middle of the grocery store in the middle of the day during Ramadan is probably not the best idea....
- Running on your first morning in August in Bahrain can be hot and by hot, I mean 100 degrees at 7:20 am with 100% humidity......oh yeah and if you are prone to exercise induced asthma in those types of conditions, I would suggest starting out with a shorter run until your build up your tolerance....don't have your first real asthma attack in a foreign country.
- The call to prayer does really happen at 4:30am.
- I am an OCD mopper....didn't realize that until I felt that my floors were perpetually going to be dirty after two days. Guess that happens when you live in the desert.
- I don't want to wash another kitchen item for a LONG time...too bad that will be tomorrow.
- Hummus is 100x better on this side of the Atlantic Ocean
- Cold Stone DOES exist in Bahrain...Insha'allah! Along with Starbucks, Caribou and other things but I haven't gone to them....
- I love air conditioning more than I ever thought I would.
- Cold here is 40 degrees - at night - at the coldest. WOW
- Stepping out into something new is one of the most invaluable experiences I have ever had!!!
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